Part XIX: "The Remarkable Sixty-Year Survival of Prof. Mahrt's St. Ann Choir”

Tenebrae, the Dying of the Light during Holy Week

Every year during Holy Week, on the evening before Holy Thursday, the St. Ann Choir sings Tenebrae at St. Ann Chapel. They began doing so during the era when Tenebrae was seldom celebrated outside of some few religious houses and other places where that tradition was kept alive. The Tenebrae service sung by the choir is a shortened form of the Matins and Lauds of Holy Thursday that is anticipated in the evening of Spy Wednesday. (Spy Wednesday gets its name because it’s the day during Holy Week when Judas began to spy to find a time to hand Jesus over to the Jewish leaders.)

The traditional form of Tenebrae is still sung in the late night and the early morning of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of Holy Week at some chapels or oratories dedicated to the traditional Latin Mass. 

In an article quoting Prof. Mahrt at National Catholic Register, the author writes,

“Now it is often an adaptation or shortened form of those prayers that is offered on Wednesday.” —“With Shadow and Mournful Chant, Tenebrae Services Evoke a Powerful Reflection on Christ’s Death” by Lauretta Brown, published April 2, 2023 at the National Catholic Register

Tenebrae is Latin for “shadows” or “darkness.” The service anticipates Christ’s suffering and death. Tenebrae starts with six candles burning on the altar and 15 candles burning on a candle stand called a hearse. The candles must be pure unbleached beeswax, which stands for the pure flesh of Christ received from His mother; the wick symbolizes His Soul, and the flame His Divinity.

As the choir sings sorrowful Psalms and the Lamentations of Jeremiah in a polyphonic setting by Victoria, the candles are extinguished one by one . . .

Dom Prosper Gueranger wrote in his masterpiece, The Liturgical Year,

“the candles being extinguished expresses the “desertion on the part of His Apostles and Disciples.”

When one candle remains, Psalm 51, the Miserere is sung. The candle is moved out of sight.

The loud noise, called the strepitus, is then made, which expresses, as Gueranger writes,

“the convulsions of nature, when Jesus expired on the Cross;—the earth shook, the rocks were split, the dead came forth from their tombs.”

The candle is then returned to the hearse. Some say this symbolizes the Resurrection of the Lord. The choir and the congregation leave in silence.

About Tenebrae, from Prof. Mahrt in the Tenebrae worship aid:

“Tenebrae is the night office (matins and lauds) for the last three days of Holy Week. It is name for the fifth responsory of Good Friday, Tenebrae factae sunt, which recalls the darkness which covered the earth when Jesus died. This office, then, calls to mind the awesome and sorrowful aspects of the death of Jesus. It does this through the usual order of psalms, lessons, and responsories for these days of the week, but several unique features emphasize the special character of this time: 1) the usual order is observed stripped of many extra elements which contribute a festivity during the year: versicles, blessings, chapter, and doxologies are all missing, leaving a simple succession of psalms, lessons, and chants. 2) The lessons for the first nocturn are from the Lamentations of Jeremiah and sung to a special tone, often in polyphonic music. 3) Fifteen candles placed on a special stand are gradually extinguished until at the end only one candle remains; this is taken out, and the psalm Miserere is sung in the darkness; finally a harsh noise (strepitus) is made and a single candle reappears.

“The symbolism of light is particularly significant for this office, since here the order observed at Easter Vigil is reversed. On the night of Holy Saturday, new fire is struck and candles are lit in the darkness to symbolize the the light of Christ and his resurrection. Here the gradual extinction of light an the disappearance of the final candle recalls his death; the noice recalls the cataclysm at his death—a liturgical representation of chaos; the return of th candle, that he will conquer death.

“A short form of the office is being sung tonight, consisting of one nocturn of three psalms with antiphons, and three lamentations with responsories. The Lamentations and the Benedictus are sung in the settings of Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611). This music epitomizes the Roman style at the end of the sixteenth century, albeit with an intense Spanish accent.”

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For more information, you might look at my article on Tenebrae,  “The Dying of the Light,” which is at Dappled Things Deep Down Things Blog.